Hello Hassan,
Although I know your questions were directed at Yunus, but I hope you don't mind me answering them too. (I know you're too busy and so am I, so this shall be hopefully brief).
First, I would like to start with reiterating what Abu Yunus said. If one believes in God, then
believing in the supernatural follows.Apart from the magic carpet - which is from hadith - all the rest is from Qur'an. (Even the magic carpet can be - and was - inferred from the Quran saying the winds were under his control and took him where he wanted.)
I believe the wind, the elements and the animals were not only made Solomon's subjects, they were literally given human intelligence too.
I'd be interested in your views on these points (which are all from the Qur'an):
How Sulayman heard/understood the meaning what the ants said/did - and why should that cause him to smile? (He did after all control them all!)
Like I said the elements and animals who were made Solomon's subjects in his kingdom, were given human intelligence. As to how he could hear the little ant, it's just that he understood what it said somehow... it doesn't have to be literal hearing... He could understand their communications, somehow.
And he smiled feeling grateful for God's favor on him that even ants were made to understand who King Solomon was.
Why would such a powerful and wise King get so angry and want to torture one little bird for not being in the line when he came to inspect?
First off, "3athab" means torture or *punishment*. When the king was inspecting his army of men, demons, beasts and the elements, he missed one soldier, and in front of the rest of his army, he threatened the deserter (the hoopoe) with severe punishment. A king must discipline his army.
How did the Hoopoe bird communicate with Sulayman?
like I said above, all his subjects had human intelligence. PLUS he could undrstand whatever the hoppoe sung as intelligible language.
How did the Hoopoe bird carry the message back to Bilquis (was it in the beak or under one wing - or did Sulayman tie it to his leg?)
Do you want me to speculate? Ok, any of the above.
How is it that a body can remain leaning on a stick for days and not fall off - nor the horse move nor get hungry or thirsty - or anyone find it odd that this would stay like that for days and nights?
Horse? What horse? There was no mention of a horse. When I read the verse I thought Solomon was on some chair somewhere.
Why didn't anyone find Solomon sitting on a chair, for days, odd? Perhaps it was a rule that no one was allowed to speak in the presence of the king until he gave permission? I can only speculate. We weren't given too many details.
Why such a tyrannical king who tortured his subjects for small offences (even though God supposedly made them obey him?) would be worthy of any sort of admiration?
A king punishing (disciplining) his soldiers is NOT tyrannical. (again, 3athab could mean punishment). PLUS, there was no mention that he *actually* had to punish anyone, except God punishing defiant demons, who'd dare disobey Solomon.
What's the point of the whole story? It's the exact opposite of the story of Job. Job and Solomon were both two slaves of God. Job suffered greatly but stayed faithful to God... Solomon was given what no human will ever be given and yet he didn't forget he was a slave of God... unlike the man of the two great gardens who was so arrogant and ungrateful towards God only because God was very generous with him (18: 32-43)And why there is no shred of any archeological evidence of this kingdom?
Don''t you find that strange?
When we have archeological evidence of other - less powerful and smaller - principalities that certainly never reached from Palestine to Yemen (which Sulayman's Kingdom at the very least did - according to the Qur'an.)
Yes. The same goes for many other stories in the Quran... for example, why is there no record of an exodus in Egyptian records, etc, etc... one can only speculate as to why this is so but
the lack of evidence is not an evidence.
Topic: The Story of Sulayman